Such a silent, peaceful night; even for Ricky. He laughed quietly. He just caught Effne and Sasaki, who were trying to sneak out ... needless to say that not even a mouse could sneak out of the Academy without being noticed from him. The girls were a little bit frustrated; it seemed that it was something like a challenge for them to sneak out without Ricky's knowing ... well, if they absolutely wanted to, he accepted this challenge.

But suddenly, the peace and quietness was over.

A screeching alarmed him.

The loud, shrill screaming of shapeshifters.

Ricky didn't think about why they weren't sneaking at the buildings but attacked the Academy in this for them unusual way. He jumped over the roofs, noticing on the brink that other people already woke up; he heared Diego, Brynjar and Adel shouting something to each other; Lady Mertillia came running with her big sword, also Headmaster Morituri. In the dormitorys lights were turned on; some of the students came out to see what happened and were forced back by Angus, with the harsh order not to leave their rooms. Andres ran to the opposite side of the place, to the old castle, to alarm Adair.

*

Adair already woke up from the screeching before Andres knocked with the handle of his sword against the door, calling his name loudly. Shifting into his elven form and quickly dressing his pants while running to the door, Adair opened and followed him on the spot; they needed no words.

Before the Academy, there were already fights; the screeching of the shapeshifters hurt their ears; Lady Mertillia was tangled in a fight with two of them; some others were forced back from three of the brothers and Headmaster Morituri. Adair took the risk to be seen from one of the kids (who could maybe look curiously out of the windows) and shifted into a big bird of prey to attack them from above, rushing onto one of them who wanted to attack Mertillia from behind. Bringing him down, he suddenly was distracted from something ... a feeling, strangely familiar to him, but ... impossible? ... He looked around, saw Ricky following one of the intruders who ran to the buildings, and noticed that the feeling came from this shapeshifter ... at the same moment when Ricky brought down his sword onto the screaming figure, Adair was seized with horror. Rushing down to earth, shifting back into his elven form, he ran to Ricky, calling his name loudly, and pulled back his arm (without considering that holding back an almost-blood-beast could be suicide) which Ricky already had lifted to give the creature the final blow.

"NO, RICKY, DON'T! Please, no!!! She's my mother, Ricky - my mother!!!" Without thinking, he took her into his arms. Ricky stopped, looking down at Adair in disbelieve, convinced that he went mad.

Meanwhile, the fight had ended; the rest of the shapeshifters fled. Now they stood around confused Ricky and shocked Adair, who held the wounded female shapeshifter and whispered "Mom ... oh heavens, mom, you're alive ... How ...?"

The black figure lifted her hand, weakly. "Adair ... found you ..." - She lost consciousness.

For a moment, there was silence; then Mertillia advanced, Headmaster Morituri beside her, and lay a hand on Adair's shoulder.

"Come ... let's take her to Amaranth."

***

A fan-story for "The Watchers Academy" which belongs to AvalonTheQuin.